Today, the President released a budget request to Congress for FY 2019 that proposes funding for the orderly closure of the Institute of Museum and Library Services.

This is the first step for the FY 2019 federal budget, and we will provide information to the Office of Management and Budget and Congress throughout the process as requested.

[Our emphasis] We are disappointed that for a second year, the President’s budget request did not provide funding for the continuation of IMLS activities for the next fiscal year. In the meantime, the agency will continue normal grantmaking operations with allocated FY 2018 funds.

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As the budget process moves forward, IMLS will continue to carry out our work on behalf of the millions of Americans served by libraries and museums each day.

Gary Price (gprice@mediasourceinc.com) is a librarian, writer, consultant, and frequent conference speaker based in the Washington D.C. metro area. Before launching INFOdocket, Price and Shirl Kennedy were the founders and senior editors at ResourceShelf and DocuTicker for 10 years. From 2006-2009 he was Director of Online Information Services at Ask.com, and is currently a contributing editor at Search Engine Land.